Monitoring blood glucose concentration is an essential part of the daily routine for diabetics. Blood glucose concentration must be determined rapidly and with ease several times daily in order to take appropriate medical measurements. In order to not restrict the daily routine of the diabetic more than necessary, mobile devices which are space-saving and simple to handle are used so that blood glucose concentration can be determined at any time.
Measurement of blood glucose concentration essentially requires two procedural steps. First, a liquid sample is generally produced by perforating the skin of the patient by means of a so-called lancet system, e.g., with the aid of a lancet needle driven by a spring system to generate a drop of blood. A blood quantity of 1.5 μL (or sometimes below 1 μL) is generally sufficient for modern measurement systems. Such lancet systems and lancing aids are known in the art and are commercially available in various embodiments. Such lancet systems are described, for example, in Publication Nos. DE 10 302 501 and DE 10 047 419. Lancing aids with magazine systems for holding and dispensing several lancets are also disclosed in these documents.
Second, the blood sample generated is then analyzed for blood glucose concentration. Diagnostic methods are usually used for this step and employ optical or electrochemical measuring methods. For example, a frequently used measuring method utilizes a special type of electrochemical test strip which can be designed such that a specified amount of blood is guided by a capillary system to an electrode system. This electrode system can, for example, be gold electrodes which are provided with a coating. The coating usually contains various enzymes and mediators and has the effect that charge carriers (for example, in the form of redox molecules) form within the blood sample at the electrodes. The concentration of the charge carriers are dependent on blood glucose concentration and can be determined by the gold electrodes and a suitable measuring system known to a person skilled in the art, for example, by means of a comparatively simple current-voltage measurement from which blood glucose concentration can be calculated.
Such a test device is known from U.S. Publication No. 20020170823, which can be used for substance analysis in body fluids such as for measuring blood glucose concentration. The described measuring device has a hand-held device and a base station in which the hand-held device and the base station can exchange data via an interface. The portable hand-held device is powered by lithium batteries.
In the first step described above for generating a blood sample, the lancet system usually first has to be manually tensioned when using systems and lancing aids known in the prior art. A spring system is typically manually tensioned, which requires a user to apply force in order to create the tension. However, this has disadvantages because children or people with physical limitations cannot usually use such lancing aids without help, and the use of such systems is inconvenient. Furthermore, operating some of these lancing aids with one hand is not always possible due to the required tensioning process.